At last night's prestigious DMC Battle at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, DJ Precision was the winner of the DMC NYC Regional DJ Battle while DJ Esquire took the 2012 DMC US Supremacy Battle title. But as hip-hop legend/DJ icon, /creator of the scratch Grand Wizzard Theodore noted during his brief onstage appearance on mic last night, "All the DJs are winners" considering the endless amount of time each puts into tirelessly prepping for DJ battles like yesterday's in the Big Apple. "It's one thing to be a DJ in the comfort of your own home," added host of the night Lord Finesse, stressing the difficulty of trying to remain calm and repeat that same routine in a packed club/battle setting. That statement was one of the few completely serious ones made at the DMC by Lord Finesse who was the real star of the day-long DJ event that ran from 2pm until almost 10pm. The host had the crowd cracking up with his ever-entertaining, quick-witted on-mic banter. The DITC member/hip-hop legend, who has a career awaiting him as a stand up comic if he wants it, was cracking jokes at a rapid rate and keeping the battle moving along nicely even during the down moments of the event. On top of this, Finesse - known as both emcee and DJ (he has a new solo album dropping in late August) - broke out an impressive, impromptu scratch routine at one point in the evening.

As 2012 DMC NYC Regional winner, DJ Precision will go onto the DMC US Finals in NYC in August to battle such other 2012 DMC Regional champs as DJ Sol Rising repping the Bay Area.

In the meantime, the new US Supremacy champ DJ Esquire, who in an elimination series of heated one-on-one battles beat out SPS, Axis Power, and (in the last final round) DJ Clean Cut, will go to London in late September for the DMC World Finals to rep the USA. For yesterday's battle I was fortunate to have one of the best seats in the house (onstage) because I was one of the judges along with such others as DJ Slyce, DJ Cheese, DJ Roli Rho, DJ Spictakular, Eddie Def, and DJ Cue (the latter two visiting San Francisco DJs also performed throughout the day).

As Grand Wizzard Theodore said, all the contestants were winners. They were also very impressive with engaging routines that, compared to the last battle I was at, relied a little less on Serato and other digital technology and included a bit more body tricks. Talented turntable contestants Mysterio and K.O. were among the body trick DJs of the day.

Even before the battle got started, tireless event planner/DMC USA overseer Christie Z Pabon reminded the audience of the importance to abide by the strict "no filming" rule of the DMC, noting how when someone videotapes a DJ's battle routine and makes it public by posting it online fthey reveal all the tricks. More blunt and funny on this topic was Lord Finesse who said, "They put em up on YouTube coz they are a nobody and this way they get their hits up." As with all his other quips, everyone laughed along with Lord Finesse, whose jokes and (all-in-good-fun) putdowns had the audience cracking up. Even before the first contestant of the day, previous DMC champDJ Etronik from LA (who many in the house felt deserved to win in the Supremacy battle), got started, Finesse was mocking his eye-wear. "The glasses don't make you look special," he joked. Every DJ became fodder for Finesse. The gangsta gun imagery of Clean Cut's Tec 9-themed Technics T-shirt, coupled with his non-smiling serious face, got the DJ dubbed "the serial killer" by Finesse who joked that the crowd better hope that Clean Cut would win because otherwise he might go on a killing spree. These jokes met loud laughter from the crowd.

A little later that same crowd became the butt of Finesse's jokes when their excitement and interest level appeared to wane a bit. "Y'all act like each clap is ten dollars," he scolded them good-humoredly, encouraging them to "act like M.O.P. just arrived on stage" and make some noise!

Held for the first time at Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village venue Le Poisson Rouge (Santos Party Houseand The Knitting Factoryin Manhattan had been previous recent year NYC venues), it was the ideal location for a DJ battle. Good sound and great layout with no beams or anything blocking the line of vision to the stage. And the stage was only a couple of feet or so off the ground which meant that those in the audience could see everything each DJ did clearly on their turntables and mixers. Nice as this is not always the case at DJ battles.

Compared to many of the other contestants yesterday, winners Esquire and Precision (pic left) are relatively DJ OGs - turntablists who've been round the block, done their time in battles, and had seemingly retired from the battle game but came back this year to reign supreme. So it was interesting to hear them both address why they decided to return to the battle scene. This they did this afternoon at a dubspotStylus Sessions turntablist music session & discussion live streamed and archived broadcast hosted by turntalbist scholar John Carluccio. "I was playing around with records and just came up with some routines," said Precision of how he ended up entering last night's battle while DJ Esquire said it was when he "judged last year's battle" that gave him the inspiration to get back into the DMC DJ battlefield. For more details on yesterday's DMC battle, as well as info on the upcoming 2012 DMC battles visit such Facebook pages as Tools of War Grassroots Hip Hop or DMC USA DJ Battles, and the DMC World Championships website.